Table of contents for February 2022 in Practical Fishkeeping

AFTER LOSING my Christmas to Covid, I think it’s safe to say that I entered 2022 with a heady case of the blues. I’m not the only one, either — I’ve seen swathes of my social circles become maudlin and glum. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been so interested in what new contributor Heather Walford has to write for me in this issue. Starting on page 24, she looks at some of the many ways that keeping aquaria can positively affect our wellbeing, and helps to affirm things about aquatics that I’ve suspected for many years. The notion of aquaria being good for you seems to be reflected in the real world too. Of all of my friends who have been left exhausted by 2021, those coping the best tend to…

questions@practicalfishkeeping.co.uk THE EXPERTS DR PETER BURGESS Peter is our disease expert. Send questions his way if you have pathogen problems. BOB MEHEN Bob is a master of fishkeeping general knowledge and community tanks. JEREMY GAY Jeremy is more than adept when it comes to cichlids, goldfish and marine species. JORDAN STIRRAT Aquascaping prodigy Jordan is the man to go to for all your planting issues. MAX PEDLEY Max is like a living, breathing search engine. Cichlids are his speciality. NEALE MONKS Neale is the man for your technical queries. He loves brackish fish, too. DAVE HULSE Dave is a consultant for the Tetra Advisory Board and a research fellow at Keele University. TROPICAL Will my pleco eat my shrimp? My pleco, called Lochy (after the Loch Ness monster), is just…

One downside to shoaling fish is that when they get relaxed in aquaria, they can lose their instincts and start to drift apart. Although that’s less likely to happen to the species mentioned here, it’s still a possibility, and unfortunately there’s not a great deal you can do to keep them together. Sometimes it can help to add some flow, in the form of a pump or powerhead, creating a focal point in the tank that shoaling fish which live in moving waters (like the Forktail rainbows) will come together to exploit. Don’t be deceived by pictures of aquascapes showing fish constantly in tight groups either. Such images are often the product of a helping hand somewhere out of shot ‘spooking’ the fish into forming up for a photo —…

THE NATURE Aquarium style dominates the world of aquascaping and despite it being not a particularly onerous style to produce, it creates a sense of nature’s imperfections in the utmost beautiful approach. Wabi-sabi is a Japanese term to describe beauty in imperfection, which is where the Nature Aquarium style excels. For the creation you see here, my ambition was to produce a classic Nature Aquarium aquascape that combines obvious simplicity with the wildness of wilderness. Before introducing you to my latest aquascape, I believe it is worth exploring the history of the Nature Aquarium style and its origins — after all, not everyone knows the background to this aquaristic genre. The Nature Aquarium style was established in the early 1990’s by Takashi Amano, who went on to found the premium…

Some hermit crabs have evolved a form of symbiosis (known as mutualism) with sea anemones. By encouraging a sea anemone to grow on its shell, the crab gains additional safety in the form of the anemone’s deadly, stinging tentacles. At the same time, the anemone gets to live a mobile life, carried from one food source to another and benefitting from scraps of the hermit crab’s own messy eating habits. So attached to each other are these two very different creatures that as and when a hermit crab outgrows its shell, it will physically transfer its pet anemone to the new one. As hermit crabs and the anemones they prefer grow at roughly the same rate, there’s rarely an imbalance. In the case of one relationship, the symbiosis has gone…

According to proponents of aquarium therapy, there are three factors to making the most of aquarium viewing, applicable to both home and public aquaria. Firstly, it pays not to rush. In many of the studies on fish and relaxation, there’s a strong correlation between the time spent watching fish and how at peace a person becomes. Linger with your tank and give it time to kick in. Secondly, it appears that in study samples at least, colourful fish are more stimulating than cryptic ones (which makes sense if it’s the observation of fish that is key to relaxation). While you’ll know your own preferences better than anyone else, you might be better off chilling out with a tank of bright Ram cichlids or garish gouramis than a Humbug catfish hidden…

Floating plants thrive in open-topped tanks and provide an upper canopy of greenery that offers a perfect habitat for surface-dwelling fish such as Guppies. You’ll also see many plants producing flowers — not just the obvious things like water lilies, but also the lovely purple flowers of Hygrophila and the floral spikes of Aponogeton. Sometimes these flowers produce seeds, and Aponogeton crispus, for example, is self-fertile and the seeds it produces readily germinate in the aquarium. Houseplants positioned nearby can be allowed to trail into the aquarium, with the Pothos plant, Epipremnum aureum, being a classic choice, sending roots into the water and sucking up surplus nitrate. ALAMY…

BOOK REVIEW FRESHWATER FISHES OF THE ARABIAN PENINSULA Author: Jörg Freyhof at al. Price: 80AED (Approx. £16.50) delivery costs to UK unknown More info: Currently available at https://store.gulfnews.com/freshwater-fishes-of-arabian-peninsula.html Reviewed by: Joost de Leeuw One wonders how often the customers of Kinokuniya, Dubai’s largest bookstore, have been looking in vain for a field guide on freshwater fishes of the Arabian Peninsula. Not that often, probably. But the UAE is a place where every need can be satisfied if the right person puts his mind to it. Someone at the Environment & Protected Areas Authority of the Sharjah emirate wanted such a book, and enlisted the eminent ichthyologist Jörg Freyhof (I imagine). And so it happened that there now is a rather comprehensive, well-put-together and affordable guide which at least two of…

In a nutshell, yes and no. A fish in too small a tank can become severely stunted, but it will also be incredibly unhealthy. Denied the space to swim and exercise, a fish will reduce the amount of the growth hormone somatotropin that it produces. However, an inactive fish will start to develop dangerous fatty deposits around its vital organs. On top of that, the fish becomes stressed as it runs out of space, and stress results in the production of cortisol. Cortisol releases glucose into the fish, lowering immune systems and stifling somatotropin production even further. Combined with ammonia salts building up in the overloaded aquarium, the immune system is pressured even more, growth of the fish is drastically reduced, fat deposits accelerate, and the fish is locked in…

A SHOAL IN action is a magnificent sight to behold. From nature documentaries, we are awed by congregations of fish knit tightly into bait balls, desperate to avoid the lunges of gannets and swordfish. Wild fish can amass in numbers beyond a layperson’s comprehension, billions coming together to move as a single school, each knowing its place in the collective. Shoals are big business. Around a quarter of all fish species shoal permanently, and around one half of all fish spend at least some time grouped together — perhaps as juveniles, or when coming together to spawn or migrate. While there’s a whole science to shoaling, the reasons behind it are relatively self-explanatory. At the top of the list comes protection, with safety found in numbers. There’s a reason shoaling…

Habitats and history, conservation and culture, art appreciation, current affairs and cooking, ‘fish’ contains all of this and more. For anyone with a passing interest in the piscine world — angler, aquarium hobbyist, even the lay natural history fan — ‘fish’ offers in-depth stories that are carefully crafted as much for their literary merit as their informative content. In a world of stuffy writing and practicality, we offer musings and entertainment. ‘fish’ is the long read for the long reader. Our masterclass is packed full of information to keep your aquarium healthy and thriving. Including a handy test to check your knowledge. DON’T MISS OUT - VISIT OUR WEBSITE AND ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY. www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/shop…

LIVING IN a digital age, there’s a lot of visual fabrication taking place. Just look at any of the social media platforms. The collective egos of their users have given rise to all manner of readily available facial manipulation software — filters — that can make a person look starkly removed from who they really are. Fish filters To my knowledge, nobody has made an app that specifically enhances the faces of fish. But there are generic image enhancing apps on each and every phone device now, and they are being used to grossly exaggerate the looks of livestock and aquaria. Is that even a problem, you might ask? It depends on whether it sets unrealistic expectations of the hobby, and leaves newcomers chasing an ideal that they will never…